Tyler Herro is in the midst of the best season of his young career. The Miami Heat stud is the frontrunner for this season's Sixth Man of the Year award and he has emerged as one of the most important players on the roster for coach Erik Spoelstra.

It's now almost unimaginable to look back at how Herro struggled so mightily last season. After a breakout rookie year during the 2019-20 campaign, Butler fell back down to earth last term. So much so, that the 22-year-old himself admitted that throughout his sophomore slump, he had to deal with the lingering fear of being traded:

“What I thrive on is my confidence,” Herro says, via Israel Gutierrez of ESPN. “I didn't feel like myself. Mentally, I wasn't in the right place to play at my best ability every day. My work ethic and getting in the gym nights before games and morning before games, things I do as part of my routine, I couldn't really do because of COVID.

“Throughout the year I was worried about whether I was getting traded or not. It was just all mental.”

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The Heat decided to keep Herro on board and now with the benefit of hindsight, it was absolutely the right decision. Nevertheless, this did not change anything about the ordeal Herro had to endure:

“Once the season ended, I wanted to get into such a good mental place that I didn't care if I got traded,” Herro says.

How times have changed. You have to give a lot of credit to this young man for his resiliency and his ability to overcome adversity. Everything is now paying off.